Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1058399
38 • THE ARTISAN FALL 2018 And it was very clear that this would be an especially chal- lenging one too. That's because, unlike the other sci-fi and fantasy make-up I've done before, this project was to be grounded in realism. Yes, we were creating an African society endowed with amaz- ing technology and enormous wealth, a society that does not exist in the real world. But it was Ryan's vision that all of it was to be grounded in reality, from the make-up, to the hair, to the whole look and feel of the film. So, I assembled my make-up team, including Department Head Make-up assistant and tattoo designer Ken Diaz. Our charge was to create designs and looks that were spectacular and unknown in our normal world, but at the same time, that didn't seem like they were beamed down from some spaceship, or that were purely the product of an active imagination. The look and visual style of the film and one main reason why it was such an enormous success is that it felt real, it seemed to be part of our world, especially the African cultures and traditions. This extends to the research the make-up department con- ducted as we prepared our looks for the five different tribes in Black Panther. In particular, we studied various African tribes, which each have their own distinct identity. We felt a team-wide commitment to be true to the heritage of the various African cultures. Even though we were creating fic- tional tribes, we couldn't stray very far from being solidly grounded in our research; to do otherwise would have been disrespectful. Even so, this was an action film, with plenty of fighting— often in settings that make-up artists dread, like in water—so the pieces had to be flexible, stable and reliable, even while they had to always catch the eye and always let audiences know they're in Wakanda, not Wichita. Ironically, perhaps, one of the most challenging designs we created was for just about the only main character who might've been anywhere near Wichita: Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger. The character is the son of Wakandan royalty, but he grew up in a rough neighborhood in the United States. Even so, when he turns up in Wakanda, his body is covered in textural scars. And since he spends most of the film shirtless, it meant creating scarification that covered most of his body. What's more, the make-up design had to help tell Killmonger's life story, as a veteran of the military, both as a soldier and then as a mercenary. The work on this began in my Los Angeles studio, where we made a full body cast of Michael's torso. And let me tell you, he's a large, muscular man, so that was a big cast, with multiple pieces. We used red pencil to mark the scarification, which we used to make what was ultimately, about 80 different silicone molds, each with 100 hash marks. We put clear plastic wrap over that and then redrew the hash marks in areas small enough that we could transfer them to a flat board. From there, we would sculpt the raised scars and mold them in a clear silicone, then cast them in a thickened glue product called Mel Gel. We could see through the silicone as we laid the very thin molds over Michael's body, since our silicone was clear. And that was just what we did in the studio. The bigger chal- lenge was making it work effectively and efficiently during pro- duction. We didn't have the luxury of duplicating a time-con- suming process during a busy shoot like this one, nor did we have the luxury of a static produc- tion. We had to update and evolve our process with the Killmonger make-up, and were thankful for the days when he was in a robe so we didn't have to apply the detailed scarification on his back. As I noted already, another of our major challenges was creating elaborate, evocative make-up that would withstand very physical com- bat, much of it in water. This film was shot in and around Atlanta, which gets notably hot and humid, so we were always alert on set to fix and reattach pieces that might have come off, and that's not just on Michael B. Jordan either, since we had many warriors from various tribes and different social stand- ings in Wakandan society who each needed tending to. first time I spoke with Ryan and got a sense of his vision and ambitions for Black Panther, I knew this would be no ordinary project. Joel Harlow, right, applies textural scars to Michael B. Jordan